Megan O'Brien

Megan O’Brien, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University and the Project Director of the DC Cohort HIV Study.

Dr. O’Brien has spent more than 20 years working in the non-profit sector to expand access to affordable, high-quality treatment for HIV and cancer, both in the United States and internationally. Much of her work has focused on market-shaping for health commodities to reduce transaction costs, improve information for decision-making, and balance risks across the supply chain. She has led collaborations that developed commodity forecasts, harmonized cancer treatment guidelines in Sub-Saharan Africa, established market access agreements with medicine manufacturers to lower the cost of cancer medicines in low and middle-income countries, trained healthworkers, and improved health system capacity for handling hazardous medicines.

Dr. O’Brien’s research has focused on improving the quality of treatment for HIV and cancer and included clinical trials, observational cohorts, and operations and implementation research. She previously led an operations research program that built analytical tools, including forecasts and simulation models, to improve the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment for HIV and worked in HIV treatment clinics in the US and in Tanzania.